


Baby, I will wait for you

by Jia_Stormborn



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: AU of an AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:40:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25033336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jia_Stormborn/pseuds/Jia_Stormborn
Summary: Foreseeably (hi Taeil!), Jungwoo and Lucas will mend fences totally by the end of the Cursed of August. What if they didn't? What if things unravelled a little differently?
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Kim Jungwoo/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Baby, I will wait for you

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Cursed Of August](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21676795) by [taeyongseo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taeyongseo/pseuds/taeyongseo). 



> If you haven't read Taeyongseo's gorgeous works, I suggest you do so now. Like, right meow. This is a speculation based on an AU of their AU. While I am open to exploring this AU further, I have other projects on the go that require some work.
> 
> *One of the OCs, Theadora Nott, is written and approximately aged to be a contemporary of EXO, as well as having a part-Veela friend. While this indicates Jongin, it is intended to be something written more for Xuxi and Woo as a plot device than anything else.

Of course, it was Yangyang.

Lucas had been dozing at his desk overlooking the bullpen. Alpha Nakamoto and Thea Nott were shut up in the Commander's office, discussing logistics for the next Hunt. At the same time, he was waiting on Gerontius to organize the recruits into teams for the Hunt.

Maybe it had not looked like it at that moment, but Lucas is _proud_ of the work he has done with the others. Yuuri Nakamoto had recruited him before he had left Hogwarts, and it had been hard, at times, to be the youngest wolf in the room. Still, Thea and Gerry had never looked down on him. Thea was the only daughter of Theodore Nott and Catalina Hernandez. She had suffered a werewolf attack in the course of her work as an Auror, while Gerontius was the son of Fenrir Greyback. Though reviled by society, he had chosen to take the hand Yuuri had extended him.

The four them had trained to take themselves from a ragtag quartet to a world-class team. And if Yukhei had thrown himself into training to forget someone (as in Jugwoo).

Well, that was his business.

Anyway, Minister Seo strode into their Ministry office bullpen, so Yukhei snapped to attention, fist over his heart. Only to be pulled into a hug from the Minister, squeezing him tighter than Lucas thought necessary.

Before Yukhei could inform him that his Alpha was busy, Minister Seo withdrew a beautiful envelope from his pocket, mouth curling into a smile as he told him.

"My nephew wasn't sure where to have this sent, so Yangyang demanded I deliver it in person." Yukhei's eyes widened. _No one_ who hadn't been personally recruited by either the Minister or Alpha Nakamoto was supposed to know about the Wolf Justice team. Although he knew Johnny and Jaehyun, had of course been told, and by extension, Taeyong and Doyoung, and probably Ten and Kun. Though they had all would have been sworn to secrecy. They wouldn't have disclosed this to the other tykes.

Not after the way he and Jungwoo had left things.

Taking the envelope and opening it to find a wedding invitation, Yukhei's heart sank. Donghyuck and Mark's wedding. _Of course_ , Yangyang would have insisted he be there. Yangie still wrote to him, always told him that Jungwoo had had his reasons for the way things had unfolded and that the other male was miserable.

Because Yukhei had left everyone behind after his recruitment to the Wolf Justice team.

Honestly, Yukhei did not want to go. But if he did not, he would regret it. These were the first friends he had made after fleeing his home and his brother and best friend. So, he would go. No matter how many times his heart broke.

Thanking Minister Seo, he threw himself into preparations. He would be back from the next Hunt just in time, so he wrote a reply to the grooms and requested admittance to the celebration for his team. The return letter was long and scolding, Mark and Donghyuck having collected absolutely everyone'sanswer to his disappearance.

After reading the response to his letter, Lucas asked Thea for a spar. She was smaller than him, sure, but she fought several times dirtier than her rather angelic appearance suggested. Yuuri frowned from the sidelines as the awed recruits marvelled at her speed and Yukhei's strength. Gerontius poked his head in and called them to dinner, and for a moment, Yukhei wished it were not like this, lovely as it was. He yearned to be with Jungwoo in a home of their own.

The sad smile Thea shot him was full of an understanding he wanted to hate, but he knew her story as well as she knew his. He knew how deeply her heart had been cut open. And he knew he would never disregard his sister's care, could never hurt her willingly.

-

The morning of Donghyuck's wedding to Mark dawned clear, the dew sparkling before it soaked into the ground, guests arriving in twos and threes and more. The only one missing was Lucas, well, Lucas and his team. Donghyuck was getting fidgety, and Jungwoo was worried.

Yuuri Nakamoto stormed through the doors of Seo Manor with a snarl on his face and anger in every step. Behind him trooped the 'team' Minister Seo had told them Lucas had joined. A tall, lithe man and a short, somewhat burly woman slipped in behind him, and then...

And then Lucas shepherded four youths through the door. Lucas, with his clipped dark hair, firm muscles and claw marks on his neck. Jungwoo's knees shook. How he wished it were because Lucas was even hotter than he remembered. No, he trembled with the effort it took not to cry because the silvery claw marks on Lucas' throat and cheek suggested the wound had nearly been fatal. When Lucas had shrugged off his cloak to reveal he was wearing trousers and a tunic rather than traditional robes, Jungwoo almost vomited. Scars of varying sizes and coloration had pitted and warped a lot of Lucas' skin. Not even his female teammate waving her wand in his direction to swap his clothes to a set of beautifully cut Chinese warrior garb could stop his horror.

 _What had they_ done _to him, to Jungwoo's Lucas?_

Jungwoo has to scold himself for that train of thought. He'd given it up, the chance for that, long before today.

Donghyuck and Mark had exchanged glances. Jaemin had snatched Jeno into his arms, Renjun a beat behind, and Jisung and Chenle had raced into Lucas's arms blubbering. Laughing, Lucas had swung the two youngest tykes around, putting them down and snarking at the recruits who were complaining about how he was never that nice to _them_.

The Hogwarts Almighty descended on Lucas then, Johnny and Taeyong pressing him between them before giving way to Jaehyun and Doyoung, Yuta and Sicheng, Ten and Kun, and finally, Taeil. Of his team, only the recruits seemed surprised that a werewolf would receive such free affection.

It had never been the lycanthropy that had made Jungwoo drive him away, though, in the end, he had, nonetheless.

So Jungwoo was very jealous when Yangyang carefully pulled Taeil off Lucas and crushed him in an embrace of his own. Prompting the still shocked older tykes to come forward, of course.

Jungwoo was not sure what he was expecting, three years after breaking Lucas' heart so intensely. After all, the other male had run away from every other person who had cared about him. No, that was not fair. He knew Lucas had kept in touch with everyone, had sent letters and gifts and had been the one to buy Yangyang's victory drinks after his first win on the National team.

He just also knew that the only reason Lucas had been at that game was that Jungwoo had been out of the country with Ten and Kun and Susan, travelling for business.

A soft smile and only slightly sad eyes were about as far from his expectations as his daydreams. After all, he had hurt Lucas badly. But he had hurt himself too, knew that no matter how irrational it was, he wanted Lucas to turn to him with that warmth he had taken for granted.

Their stilted greetings were cut off by Lucas' female companion cooing at him in awkward, stilted Chinese. Jungwoo hated the surge of jealousy that curdled in his stomach when Lucas turned to her and the man beside her, an indescribable warmth in his words when he replied.

-

Later, after the reception, Jungwoo struggles to contain himself. Lucas remains with his team, and as much as Jungwoo wants to talk to him, he is wary of pulling him away from them.

He ends up not having to because Lucas asks him to go for a walk with him.

Of course, he goes, grateful Lucas had slowed his amble so Jungwoo can keep up. But Jungwoo is not sure what to say, so he keeps quiet, and when Lucas asks.

"Are you happy, Jungwoo?" He falters. Stops, and _looks_ at Lucas. Past the spiderwebbed scarring and the inexplicable warmth in his eyes. To the exhaustion made evident by the bags under those eyes. Jungwoo had loved them since he first saw them, their unique colouring something he treasured when he thought of this man. When he sees the tension in Lucas' shoulders, Jungwoo flinches.

This life was not what he had wanted for Lucas. This twisting hurt was not what he had intended when he denied them what they both wanted. He had thought Lucas would- no, he _had not_ thought about what Lucas would do. The thought of him in someone else's arms and life and sharing his beautiful smile with someone who was not Jungwoo had ripped him apart. He had been so sure it was for the best to cut Lucas free, and now.

Now he wishes he had not.

Face solemn, Lucas turns away and says evenly.

"According to Yangyang, you regret how we left things."

Jungwoo sucks in a breath, caught.

He sucks in another and blurts

"I regret all of it. I loved you then, when we were young, and I had no idea-" Jungwoo pauses, straightens his shoulders and forges on

"I had no idea how you'd suffered, and I love you still, knowing I have no right to." He panics when a tear rolls down Lucas' cheek before he replies

"There have been no others, Woo, I never had the chance for there to be, but I can't just hand you my heart for you to break it again."

His chest contracted until he could not breathe, and Jungwoo barely heard Lucas continue.

"If you want it, this, _us,_ convince me that the time I spent believing you didn't want me was wasted." He turned and walked away, leaving Jungwoo to his misery.

Because _how_ had it come to this? How could he let Lucas think he did not want him?

(Jungwoo knows precisely how, but his heart is screaming too loudly to let that knowledge speak)

-

Maybe twenty minutes later, Thea finds him.

He finds it odd that Lucas' friend, not his, decided to have this talk with him until she says bluntly.

"Luc asked me to answer any questions you have." Jungwoo looks at her and takes in the small smile and the sad eyes, her face so set with them; it makes his breath catch.

"There was… my story is close enough that I might have the answers you need. Lucas isn't trying to be difficult, but he needs to know this is important to you." Despite his desire to hide under his covers and cry, if only to let it all out, Jungwoo asked

"Will you tell me your story?" Thea grimaced but answered

"Not much different to yours. Except I got bitten after I had become an Auror. My partner found me after a pack of rogues had tortured and bitten me. _He_ came to see me in the ward, asked me to marry him so he could take care of me, and I spat in his face." She sees Jungwoo's shock, and her next words are bitter

"I trained to be an Auror because I wanted to, not because I needed a job. When I confessed to him just before we left Hogwarts, he told me that he loved me too, just not- He didn't want me to realize later that it had all been lust and that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life with him." Eyes glassy, she forced out a few hiccupping breaths before she explained

"He thought it was his fault that I'd trained as an Auror, had chased a dream that wasn't him, and wanted to make it up to me. We were friends, but I just- I couldn't accept his pity." Biting his lip, Jungwoo probed

"So, Lucas thinks-" She shook her head.

"I don't know what he thinks. I know I would think it is too good to be true. I know I would hope he meant it."

Steeling himself, Jungwoo requested

"How do I prove myself?"

-

It starts with something small. A note on Jungwoo's stationery, not the kind he uses for his work with Ten, or the stuff he has for his correspondence. No, this paper is from Jungwoo's hand, Conjured specifically for this letter on which he copies the final draft.

All this fuss makes it sound overly complicated. It is not. This letter is one long overdue, and it is an explanation and a lament and a plea all in one. This letter is the document where Jungwoo explains his choices and hopes and desires. Still, it is also the one place where he puts down the secrets that he has not told Lucas despite wanting to.

At first, Lucas is confused. The top corner features scrolling ivy twining around a badger, and on the bottom...

It is an engraving of a wolf gambolling in a field of the flowers he had grown with Yangyang, for his confession to Jungwoo. Yukhei must set the parchment down to wipe his tears. It frequently happens as he reads the letter Jungwoo had spent so long writing.

Lucas, of course, answers it. With a gorgeous, hand-painted paper lantern and a note that reads _My flame is still yours._

Wisely, Jungwoo does not stop his courtship there.

After much pestering, Minister Seo (Uncle Youngho is _fine,_ child) divulges the team's dormitory location, which is where Jungwoo has his next gift delivered. A soft, downy cotton quilt, handsewn by Jungwoo himself, though with some judiciously applied help. The blocks of fabric could, rightfully, have told of Lucas' history, before Hogwarts. But Jungwoo doesn't think he knows enough of it. Instead, he hounds all their friends and through Thea, all of Lucas' current teammates, piecing together the pattern that tells of all the people who have and do love Lucas in the new land he's claimed.

He never tells anyone, because he opens his gift in private. Still, the tears Lucas sheds over this so thoughtful gift are not entirely for his happiness. Old grief has settled in his heart, but it roars to the surface now. Mainly because several pieces are a shade lighter or darker than his beloved baby brother's eyes. The pattern Jungwoo had chosen- if De Jun were so inclined to grant permission for it, the images of his markings could be superimposed on the thing.

The bitter tears of loss are wiped away with Jungwoo's present, and Lucas locks up the part of him that aches for the people who once held him, loved him. And when the time comes to send a return gift, Lucas begs Thea and Gerontius to help him with the tapestry he designs for his Woo. It's a beautiful piece, spun with his wand after practising the lessons taught by his teammates. It depicts Hogwarts in the bloom of spring, the grounds which they'd lounged on as youths decorated only with their mentors and no others.

Jungwoo himself cries over Lucas' gift, carefully packing it away for the day they choose their own home.

-

Their courtship continues to be steadfast through the months to come. Although they had traded leather goods for the third anniversary they'd missed in person, Lucas is Hunting in month four. He comes home to Seo Manor in time for Christmas scratched up and hair a mess. Blacking out in the antique chair that Taeyong had directed him to the moment he'd materialized, dirty, exhausted and bleeding.

Jungwoo frets as Taeyong gently cleans the wounds. He worries still more when he sees the sleeves of Lucas' brand-new Hunting jacket are torn where he protected his face. Probably because he held his hands up to stop the werewolf's claws.

Once Lucas has been hauled to bed by the combined efforts of Yangyang and Jeno, Jungwoo is still fretting at their heels, but it's time to talk. The Hogwarts Almighty and their assorted tykes assemble in the drawing-room, patently furious. Not at Lucas, never at sweet, giving Lucas.

But at the circumstances that drove him to this life? They are all enraged.

Yuuri drops in not long later, patiently letting Yuta and an unusually impatient Sicheng examine him for injuries. He waves that same examination away when he says carelessly.

"I've never been allowed in the field because I'm mated." Yuta draws up short, and everyone is relieved when his father settles in to explain

"When we set up the team, Theadora, Gerontius and Lucas all insisted that as I had a family waiting for me, I take care of logistics and act as a liaison at need." Jungwoo feels his rage come back to the surface, and much later, is grateful that no one holds it against him when he spits

"So, he's been doing this because he thinks he doesn't have a family?!" Yuuri shakes his head, says slowly

"No, Lucas is smarter than that. He takes on the most dangerous aspects of Hunts because he's the youngest with the training to do so, especially because Theadora's been more on edge lately."

Eventually, they all disperse, and Jungwoo crawls in beside Lucas, cautious of his healing wounds. Though, per Yuuri, he probably does not have to be, because a Hunt usually involves a Shift at some point. It is startling to realize that Jungwoo is seething over the fact that Lucas thinks he must take on the most dangerous aspects of these Hunts. Why? Why does it matter that these werewolves hunt criminals?

Resolving to ask in the morning, Jungwoo drifts to sleep.

He only woke in Lucas's arms, nose to his throat, with a full view of his scarred, bare chest.

"You can look." Lucas murmurs above him, sprawling on his back and putting his arms behind his head. Muscled limbs that bare scars now when they were fresh gashes yesterday.

Oh, right. Lucas' healing.

Deciding to be brave, Jungwoo straddles Lucas's chest, gently brushes the hair out of his eyes. Jungwoo smooths his hands over the other man's scars, and barely recognizes his voice when he asks.

"How did you get these?" A shrug of broad shoulders, Lucas' eyes flicking away before he says

"Hunts are dangerous. Especially close enough to a full moon for the werewolf you're tracking to have the claws to slash you."

Tears fill Jungwoo's eyes.

"Why, Lucas? Why do you do this?" The watery question isn't unheard, but Jungwoo _hates_ the sudden guardedness to Lucas' expression. He flexes his hips, Lucas does, toppling Jungwoo into his arms, pulling Jungwoo into his hold and pulling the blankets up before admitting in a lower voice than usual.

"It helped me hold you and everyone else at arm's length, true, but more than that, there were no jobs for a werewolf fresh out of school, especially for a foreigner who'd been here less than a year. I was terrified I would never find a job and that you would find out I am what I am, only you did, and it changed nothing. When Yuuri-ge asked me to consider joining the team, I jumped at the chance to do something that would make people _have_ to see us as people."

No matter how much sense it makes or how it hurts his heart that Lucas has suffered those feelings, no matter that his pride hurts because Lucas did not think he could ask for help, Jungwoo can understand that. And it is because he can see it that Jungwoo hates it so much. Jungwoo knows better than to ask or beg Lucas to stop, to at least not take so much danger head-on. It rips a hole in him somewhere Lucas cannot see, but all he does is snuggle into his chest, orders.

"No matter what, you fucking come home in one piece." Lucas assents sleepily, and they both drift off.

-

He does not care what it looks like.

Kim Jungwoo _does not_ panic!

Dong Renjun would very much like to beg to differ.

This is especially so because Jungwoo is positively in a tizzy, trying to figure out what to get Lucas for his last courting gift. Although he could theoretically get the next item on the list of anniversaries they had missed because of his stupidity, he had decided that it needed to be bigger and grander than fruit or flowers.

All of this is why Renjun and all the other tykes had exhaled with relief when Ten whirled in, claiming he had the 'best gift idea ever!' Jungwoo looked at him, a mix of desperation and hope on his face. Renjun leaned back on the couch he was sharing with Jeno and Jaemin, the latter firmly wedged on the former's lap despite the vice grip Jeno kept on Jaemin.

Urgh, Renjun is _so_ glad he got his shit together with these two years ago. Even if it had taken his and Jaemin's combined efforts and an extra six months to convince Jeno, that he was their most precious third, not a pity partner. At least he does not have to make up for any colossal stupidity like freaking Woo.

-

Correction, Renjun is pissed as hell that _Ten_ gave Jungwoo the actual best idea ever.

Ten and Kun had established contact with Lucas' family not long after coming to Hogwarts and had sent any news whenever they could. When they had realized Woo was dead serious about courting Lucas into mating him, they had started planning a trip to China to bring Lucas' family to England for the wedding as their gift but had forfeited it to Jungwoo.

Now they watched Lucas get smothered, first by his parents, and then his brother Hendery and his husband De Jun. Both of whom cried into Lucas' shoulders as he chattered in his home dialect, trying to soothe them long enough to simply let him _go_.

Trading sour looks with Jeno, Renjun hauled Jaemin into an embrace, humming with pleasure when Jeno needed no invitation to hug them both.

The wedding will happen and probably be freaking gorgeous. But right now, Renjun kind of wishes they hadn't watched this reunion. If only so he wouldn't have to see the stark heartbreak in Jaemin's face when Lucas' parents swooped back in to hug the son they'd lost so long ago.

It will be alright.

And it is, once Jaemin calms himself and the other tykes trot over with the rest of the Hogwarts Almighty to be introduced to Lucas' family. Donghyuck and Mark thrilled that their very own wedding had sparked this.

**Author's Note:**

> There was a playlist I listened to on my iPod for writing this, if anyone is curious I can type it here or create a Spotify one.
> 
> cc:<https://curiouscat.me/Seashine>
> 
> edited with Grammarly 20.07.30


End file.
